1. Field of the Invention
The present document relates to an optical disc apparatus capable of time search function and a time search playback method thereof wherein, when a time search playback is requested in the optical disc apparatus capable of play-backing an optical disc like a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), a start address of a VOBU (Video Object Unit) corresponding thereto is searched to normally conduct a time search operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a DVD optical disc recorded therein with a high definition of video data and a high fidelity of audio data has been widely distributed and commercialized. For example, the optical disc apparatus searches Video Title Set Time Map Table (VTS_TMAPT) included in Video Title Set Information (VTSI) out of navigation information recorded in advance in the DVD as illustrated in FIG. 1 when a user selectively designates an arbitrary time to request a time search playback while conducting a data playback operation.
Furthermore, the optical disc apparatus refers to VTS_TMAP information recorded and included in the VTS-TMAPT. The VTS-TMAP information includes TMU (time unit), Map Entry Numbers (MAP_EN_Ns) and MAP_ENT (Map Entry).
Meanwhile, the MAP_ENT is recorded with VOBU Start Address as many as the MAP_EN_Ns, where the k th VOBU Start Address (VOBU Start Address #k) is a value of time of the TMU multiplied by ‘k’.
Consequently, TMU multiplied by the MAP_EN-Ns becomes an entire playback time, from which a playback address of a particular area can be known. For example, if the TMU is 2 seconds, and the MAP_EN_Ns is ‘1800’, the entire playback time of relevant program chain is 3600 seconds, i.e., 1 hour. If a playback operation is to be conducted from a 30-minute area in response to a user's request, a VOBU Start Address recorded in MAP_ENT of the 900 th area is searched and played back, and then a time search playback operation from the user-desired 30-minute area is implemented.
However, the VTS-TMAPT information searched for implementing the time search playback operation in the conventional optical disc apparatus thus described may be optionally recorded or not recorded in the DVD navigation information. If the VTS-TMAPT information is not recorded, there is no way of conducting the time search playback operation.